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Water Drilling Rig and Dowsing Ineffective During Depression Era

By Capper's Staff
Published on February 29, 2012

During the depression era, we did not have any water on our land, and no electricity. I remember how my Dad, with my brothers, would haul three big wooden barrels of water in a wagon a couple of times a week. He would hitch up a team of horses and go haul the water from the nearest spring, about five miles one way. Dad had a Water Drilling Rig come and twice they drilled over 300 feet down, but struck no water. They even had a man who tried dowsing, or holding a forked branch from a tree, and this switch should pull down when he walked over a vein of water. It didn’t work.

Barbara Parker
Agawam, Massachusetts


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.